Caroline and the Six Month Old Secret
by Caroline
Summary: [Season one fic] Six months ago, no one would've ever seen this coming.
1. The Undercover Lovers

**Caroline and the Six-Month-Old Secret**

_by Caroline_

* * *

Six months ago, if someone had told him he'd be here right now, he would have laughed grimly in their face... and possibly called them an uneducated boob. He pulled on his boxers, standing to do so, and laughed aloud when he felt two fingers give his rear end a quick pinch. Once his boxers were on, he sat down on the edge of the bed and closed his eyes when he felt a pair of slender soft arms drape around his shoulders, sucking in his breath as he felt a pair of breasts against his bare back.

And then lips were on his neck -- pouting lips. "Do you really have to go?"

With a smile, he reached back and touched her sex-tousled hair. "Yes. You know I do."

A childish whimper escaped her lips and she kissed down his neck again, her hands sliding down his shoulder blades and under his arms, around to his chest again. She toyed with his chest hair. "If you stayed, I could make it worth your while."

"I know. Unfortunately, if I stayed... we would get caught."

"I know." She was still pouting. It amazed him how she could be childish and vixen-like all at once. Yet another complexity that kept him so firmly tethered to her. "Y'know, sometimes this really sucks."

He chuckled. "Way to be mature, Caroline."

She whacked him in the arm. "You know what I mean. I couldn't think of a more eloquent way to put it. Here, how about this?" She cleared her throat. "The way in which we continue to hide our attraction is no longer fun and exciting for me, Richard. Better?"

"Much." He sighed then and turned around on the bed, watching her lay back against the pillows enticingly. He rolled his eyes at her less-than-subtle seduction tactics but slid under the covers with her again nonetheless. He kissed her pouting lips, then down her neck to her collarbone, dipping his tongue into the small indentation there. "Caroline, you know that I would love nothing more than to be able to bring this out in the open. But we have more than us to consider." He laved her chest in slow strokes with his tongue until she started moaning and writhing beneath him. Then he started sliding his lips toward her stomach. "How do you think Del would feel if he knew you'd been going behind his back this whole time?"

Her breathing was labored, but he looked up long enough to see her nod with eyes closed. "You're right. And Annie, too."

Richard paused on his way past her belly button to arch an eyebrow at her. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not nor do I ever plan on dating Annie."

She laughed and sat up to kiss him, raking her fingers through his impossibly-wavy blond hair. "I know. But if Annie ever found out about this, she'd never fully recover."

"Hmm. The thought of that is rather appealing." He gently pushed her on her back again and continued kissing and licking every part of her, tingles shooting up his spine when his lips met her center and she cried out in ecstasy, moving against him immediately. He had her flying within minutes, and while she came down off the high, he got out of bed and gathered his things.

"You're just leaving like that? You don't want to...?"

"Of course I want to, Caroline, but Del is going to be here in fifteen minutes to pick you up for racquetball. I need to go out and at least _pretend_ to have been picking up lunch, and you need to shower."

"I'm just going to be getting sweaty again shortly."

"Fine, then at least run a comb through your hair," he teased, nodding at the tufts of her shoulder-length hair that were sticking up in unruly tangles.

She glared facetiously and smoothed her hair down, then pulled it back into a low ponytail. "Y'know, eventually we're going to have to come out with this."

"Yes. But not now."

"But... don't you think this is a little weird, Richard?"

"Caroline, our definitions of 'weird' are very different. To me, weird would be spotting someone on the subway with two heads."

"Well, don't you find this to be... a little out of the norm as far as relationships go? I mean, y'know, most couples see each other regularly-"

"Which we do-"

"They go out together-"

"Which we do-"

"On _dates_."

"Oh."

Richard paused at the door, sensing she needed to get the 'relationship talk' out of her system. She kneeled up on the bed and wrapped the sheet around herself, moving toward the edge of the bed closest to him. "Richard, I just mean... I care about you. The sex is great, but... I'm sensing something deeper going on here." He watched her forehead wrinkle as she practically begged, "Please tell me I'm not the only one feeling this way."

Richard closed his eyes and sighed, realizing that in his effort to keep their personal relationship under wraps, he completely disregarded her need to know how he felt about her. Since it started six months ago, it had been mainly sex... fueled by an argument the first time and continuing beyond that when the spark became too much to ignore. But now it was six months later and he was past caring about Caroline -- he was in love with her, despite their yin-and-yang differences. "I feel it too," he assured her softly.

"Then... why can't we bring this out into the open?"

"You know it's more complicated than that, Caroline." He went to her and cupped her face in his hands, kissing her slowly.

And it _was _more complicated than she wanted it to be. As long as they'd been sleeping together, she had also been sleeping with Del. To keep up appearances, Richard started to date Shelly despite the fact that she annoyed the hell out of him. He was no longer sure _why _they felt the need to hide their relationship -- there was no company policy about interoffice dating, after all, since Caroline effectively _was _the company. But the decision was made early on and they'd stuck with it.

But now, it seemed, Caroline was unhappy with the deal they'd struck. ...And she was _still _pouting. So Richard kissed her again and decided to placate her by taking a leap and expressing his feelings. When he pulled away, he looked deep into her eyes and murmured, "I love you."

"Really?" She sounded surprised, to say the least, and for a split-second Richard feared the worst until he saw the brilliant smile lighting up her face. She grabbed his face and kissed him emphatically. "I love you too." She laughed. "And I don't say that to just anybody, buster." She poked him in the chest and he laughed.

He enjoyed being with Caroline in this way. Not just the sex, but being able to relax. He'd never had anyone in his life that relaxed him. With Julia, it had been constant stress over which party she'd be dragging him to on that particular night, or what aspect of his art or his life she would complain about at any given moment. Caroline just took him as he was, stopped trying to change him once she realized the persona she saw during working hours wasn't completely him, and encouraged him to relax with her.

"Actually," her stream of consciousness continued, "I don't think I've ever even said that to Del."

"Don't I feel special," he quipped.

Caroline rolled her eyes and pulled him to her by the shirt for another searing kiss before she pushed him to arm's length. She definitely knew how to tease a man. "Go. I think we've just got five minutes now before Del gets here."

"Alright. I'll see you when you return from racquetball. Want me to pick up your usual from the deli?"

She smiled, already getting out of bed (completely comfortable walking around naked in front of him), and nodded. "Please."

"Okay." He kissed her one last time, whispering, "Love you," against her lips again before forcing himself to walk out the door.

Once out on the street, Richard felt himself smiling and briefly wondered if he'd finally gone insane. If he had, he'd been driven there by the lovely redhead. Six months ago, he never would've seen it coming. The best thing in his life, borne of an argument, spurred by his own cowardice. He shook his head and chuckled.

Go figure.

* * *

TBC

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: **_I heart you guys SO MUCH for putting up with my flighty (okay, slutty) muse, lol. I am still working on 'C & the Big Hangover' but this story was nagging at me all this week. I'm absolutely currently obsessed with season one Richard & Caroline -- so pretty, so touchy-feely. GAH. I love it. And since I'm such a giant stickler nowadays for characterization & flow, I will definitely be trying my hardest to keep this as in-character as I can, without going over-the-top, but with just enough wiggle-room to TRY to make this situation plausible, hehehe. In the following chapters, I'll be interspersing real-time action with flashbacks. And FYI, flashbacks will always be in italics. Hope you enjoy the coming chapters! "Caroline and the Mugger" is covered in this next one :)_


	2. The Pivotal Argument

**Caroline and the Six-Month-Old Secret**

_by Caroline_

* * *

Caroline finished toweling off her face and smiled at her reflection -- any traces of her mid-morning tryst with Richard had been erased. After brushing her teeth and once more fixing her hair into a ponytail, she got ready for racquetball. Luckily, Del had called to tell her he'd be late. Otherwise, the carefully-constructed web of deceit she and Richard had been weaving may have unraveled.

She never -- not in a million years -- thought she would be this woman. She looked down upon this woman typically -- the cheater, the two-timer. But if she was being honest with herself, where her and Del were concerned, there wasn't even much of a relationship. So, in her mind as she'd rationalized it for the past six months, she wasn't cheating. She and Del both knew they would never have a 'forever' kind of connection. And not once had they ever deemed their relationship exclusive. Besides, for all she knew, Del was seeing someone on the side as well. They didn't see each other nearly as much as they used to, so who was she to say that Del wasn't doing the same thing?

She didn't want to think of that now. As she readied her gym bag, she turned her thoughts to Richard. The past six months had been incredible, despite the fact that they had to hide their blossoming romance. Six months ago, if she were to look at her dour, cynical colorist and then have someone tell her that not only would he be the best sex of her life but that she'd also fall madly in love with him, she would've laughed. Hard. Guffawed, possibly.

But that was six months ago. Before she saw what kind of man he was -- how passionate, attentive, and caring he was. Before that pivotal argument opened a door that she hoped would never close.

* * *

_"Richard, every time we have a disagreement you can't just walk out mad!"_

_"Yeah, or what? You'll swat me over the head with a rolled-up newspaper?"_

_"Look, I didn't think you were a coward before, but if you just leave you might be."_

_That had stopped him at the door long enough for him to tell her the story of his tenth birthday present -- a leather bomber jacket that was stolen away from him by the school bully. The story of his cowardice, and his sister's reaction -- which was, according to him, the exact same reaction she'd had to what happened on the subway today. The emotion in his voice, the raw, quiet emotion, had tugged at her heartstrings and brought forth tears she didn't even know she had in her for this man. She'd apologized for the way she reacted and Richard had told her it was okay, but she could see from the look on his face that just wasn't true. Then he'd left._

_"Boy, was he bringing this party down!" one of the yahoo's from Annie's party exclaimed._

_Caroline rolled her eyes at them before explaining none-too-gently that the party was, in fact, across the hall where all the music and laughter and noise was coming from, promptly kicking the two gentlemen out afterwards. After slamming the door, she called them idiots under her breath and swiped at her still-falling tears with the back of her hand. When a knock sounded on the door, she was ready to start screaming at them. "What part of 'across the hall' don't you--"_

_When she swung open the door, Richard stood on the other side, and she tried all the harder to get rid of the evidence of her tears. "Richard."_

_"Caroline, look. I thought about it and I'm sorry about the way I--" He paused midsentence and took a good look at her. "Why are you crying?"_

_"Um..."_

_She practically startled when he stepped into her and reached up to her face -- she thought he hated physical contact -- and wiped at her tear tracks. "Please don't cry," he begged her, his tone soft once again. "Please don't cry over me, Caroline, I'm not worth it."_

_She shut her eyes, squeezing more tears out at the sound of his voice, and shoved him away angrily. "Stop! Just stop it!"_

_"Stop what?"_

_"Stop talking like that, Richard! I hate it when you do that."_

_"It's true. I'm not worth crying over, Caroline. I'm not even worth caring about or getting close to, trust me. I'm - I'm depressed, I'm cynical, my parents are insane, I have a sister that won't talk to me because _she _thinks I'm too _chipper_... I've suffered through the worst childhood imaginable, and--"_

_Caroline never heard the rest of his diatribe as she acted upon her impulses and leaned up to kiss him. She heard Richard's sharp inhalation before he kissed back -- briefly. Then he suddenly broke away as if her lips burned him and asked of her, "What did you do that for?"_

_"I don't know." And she didn't. Not really. The only thought she'd had before their lips touched was that she wished he'd stop talking about himself like that. _

_"You don't know?" He obviously wasn't buying it. _

_"I just... wanted to kiss you."_

_"Why?" He wasn't going to make this easy on her, that much was for certain._

_She threw her hands up in exaggerated resignation. "I don't know, Richard, okay?!" Her voice had raised, and it seemed another argument would be inevitable. "I got an impulse to kiss you, so I kissed you!"_

_"Do you always do that? Act on your impulses?" he questioned, staying in the doorway as he watched her pace near the kitchen counter._

_"Sometimes," she replied, her mind still fuzzy from the kiss. "At the supermarket... all those impulse buys at the register..."_

_She stopped pacing when she heard his soft chuckle -- a sound so out of place from the man she'd met mere weeks before. His amusement was evident, and he took a few more steps toward her. When he reached his hands out, she was too surprised to do anything else but place her hands in his. He squeezed them and tugged her a little closer. The way he smiled into her eyes practically made her melt, and she wondered how he could ever think he wasn't worth caring about or getting close to. "Caroline... I came here to apologize, not to start another fight. I never meant to make you cry."_

_"I know. And I don't know why I cried, just... the sound of your voice..." She got choked up again just reliving it, hearing it in her head once again._

_"Shh, shh," he quieted her, and his thumbs rubbed across her cheeks, wiping away the last vestiges of her tears. _

_The second kiss was inevitable. Their eyes had met, Caroline started to lean in, and Richard met her halfway. The kiss was tentative, testing the tenuous boundaries. But then the tension -- that spark of attraction that had been there since they met -- took over, and their kisses deepened. Her hands found those enticingly thick waves of blond hair as his hands supported her lower back. Caroline backed toward the stairs, seeing nothing but where she wanted to end up with Richard... and he followed without protest._

_They made it up the stairs without tripping over each other (and over the stairs, for that matter) and soon tumbled into her bed. Del never even entered her stream of consciousness as clothing was shed. Before she knew it, Richard was inside her, infusing her with his passion, and she was arching into him, wanting everything he was willing to give her and more. It was intense -- in fact, that had been the only thought in her head as they laid side-by-side, hands clasped, staring up at the ceiling. It was intense._

* * *

But she and Richard had agreed that night, as they re-dressed awkwardly, that it could never happen again. She was with Del, and they worked together; it would be inappropriate.

So she should've been surprised when it happened a second time no more than a week later... but she wasn't. That time had been just a little bit her fault. She knew that hemline had been too short. The dress had been just a little too clingy... and far too green.

"Hey Care? You ready for racquetball?" Del called up from downstairs.

"Be right down!" she yelled back, before grabbing her gym bag, slinging it over her shoulder, and grinning at herself in the mirror one last time before running downstairs.

* * *

TBC

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: **_So I fully realize I may in fact be shooting myself in the foot, so to speak, by posting the next chapter already, but I can't help it! I'm excited about this fic right now, and that is what I do when I'm excited about a fic. Having the first season downloaded on my computer definitely makes it a lot easier to get ideas, too. And if you couldn't tell by the hints at the end of this chapter, 'Caroline and the Gay Art Show' is covered next :D_


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